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Ontario Court of Appeal rules in favour of brothels

The Ontario Court of Appeal, the province’s top court, has ruled that sex workers should be able to legally take their trade indoors, work together, and pay staff to support and protect them.

The court released a decision Monday on an appeal of Superior Court Judge Susan G. Himel's ruling that three provisions of the Criminal Code pertaining to the sex trade should be struck down on the grounds that they are unconstitutional.

In its decision, the court ruled that the sex workers are engaged in extremely dangerous work where inherent risks are multiplied by laws preventing them from working together under one roof or hiring security staff. Beginning next year, sex workers in Ontario can work legally in brothels.

However, the court did leave intact one of the three provisions struck down by the Superior Court, ruling that communicating in a public place for the purposes of prostitution will remain illegal.

While the striking down of two of the three provisions represents a landmark decision towards the health and safety of sex workers, a number of studies by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) have shown that the enforcement of the communicating code displaces sex work to isolated spaces and is directly associated with elevated risk for violence, coercive unprotected sex, and reduced access to health and support services.

The study concluded that forcing sex workers out of populated areas and into back alleys and dark streets increases violence and risk of HIV. The court’s decision effectively limits access to support services and reduces the likelihood of reporting violent incidences to police.

The BC-CfE’s Gender and Sexual Health Initiative, along with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, acted as legal interveners, speaking to the adverse health and safety impacts of Canada’s criminalized prostitution laws.